


we'll see the ocean together (you promised)

by starmilk



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Implied Reincarnation, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, SNK AU, i've been meaning to write this forever wow, kind of, lots of fluff, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 18:54:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1658849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starmilk/pseuds/starmilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin's from Shiganshina, Haru's from Trost.<br/>They meet when they both join the military; and their story starts from there.</p><p>(these are the snapshots of how they met, how they lived together, how they fought, and how it ended).</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll see the ocean together (you promised)

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to write an SNK AU forever like I literally had it all planned in my head I just never got around to sitting down and writing.
> 
> But, well, here it is. Finally.
> 
> I feel like it could've been better, maybe a bit longer. It's also pretty rushed near the end, so. Sorry.  
> This is completely unedited, so I apologize for any mistakes.

Rin had been an unstoppable shooting star from the very beginning.

He had vibrant red eyes filled with a burning fire that never went out, hair the same shade as his eyes, sharp teeth and an easygoing grin. He was brash, brazen, stood up to the instructors, had a fiery hot temper that burned bright and fast.

"What’s your name?" The Chief Instructor had asked, the first day of training. She had been staring down at Rin, eyebrows knitted into an expression of displeasure.

"Rin," Rin had replied, brightly, undeterred. His voice was loud, sweeping over the crowd. Everyone could hear him. "Rin Matsuoka."

"Matsuoka," the Chief Instructor had hissed through her teeth. She had spoken in an irritated tone, glaring down at Rin all the while. "Why are you standing there grinning like a fool? Why are you in the military? Are you here for fun? Do you think this will be a  _vacation?_  You haven’t seen the titans. You don’t know the wreckage they can do. You cannot be in the military if you’re not  _serious. You don’t understand what it is like, out there._  It is not a joyride, and you can not treat it as a game. Wipe that grin off your face.”

Rin was still smiling at the end of the speech, but his grin had waned a little. His eyes were hard and filled with something undefinable as he stared up at the Chief Instructor.

"I’m from Shiganshina," he replied, quietly, the smile slipping off his face completely.

He didn’t say anything more, but the instructor blinked quickly and stared at him with a brief expression of shock, before rapidly moving away. 

Haru’s eyes lingered on the boy for a while, even after everyone had lost interest in him. 

Rin had been grinning again, smiling at the people standing on either side of him.

=

"Oh! Are you my bunkmate?"

Red eyes and a sharp grin stared up at Haru.

Haru blinked from where he had settled on the top bunk, staring down at the boy below.

"I’m Rin Matsuoka! I’m your bunkmate!"

"Haruka. Haruka Nanase."

"Oh! That’s a nice name. Hi, Nanase! We should be friends!" Rin had grinned, bright and almost annoyingly earnest, staring up at Haru with glittering eyes.

"I don’t need friends," Haru had replied in a deadpan, looking away from Rin. "I already have them."

(He had joined the military with Makoto, his childhood friend. They had both been from Trost. Haru had joined because he felt like his life was getting boring; felt like he was sitting around in a fishbowl waiting for  _something_ to happen. Makoto had followed him, no questions asked).

"You can always have more friends!" Rin had replied brightly, scrambling up the ladder and jumping up onto Haru’s bunk, taking his pillow with him.

"Please get off my bunk."

"Nah. We’re friends now, right?"

"I never said we were -."

"I’m sleeping here tonight!" Rin wedged himself in between the wall and Haru, setting his pillow onto the mattress and lying down. "The bunks are large enough for two people, anyways. They’re really comfortable!"

"Please get off my -."

"Goodnight, Nanase!"

That was, in a way, how it all started.

=

Rin had continued to bug Haru, consistently requested to be his friend. He had taken to joining Makoto and Haru at their table for meals, chattering on and on with Makoto as they ate.

(“He’s a nice guy. Rin,” Makoto had told Haru.

It was a week after they had started training, a week after Rin had forcibly shoved his way into Haru’s life. Makoto had already warmed up to Rin, talked with Rin regularly. 

Haru and Makoto were standing outside of the dining hall as the sun set, watching people move around them. 

Haru had scoffed slightly, turned away. “He’s annoying.”

Makoto had just laughed lightly, smiled at Haru. “I’m sure you’ll warm up to him soon.”)

= 

Nobody touched any 3DMG gear in the first three months of training. The first three months of training focused purely on physical training - exercising everyone’s bodies; breaking everyone’s muscles down and rebuilding it all from the ground up.

The trainees ran drills all day, running and punching and self defense and more running and more drills, flexibility practice, push ups, more drills, jogging, climbing mountains. 

There was a lot of throwing up and people unable to eat, everyone exhausted by the time the day was over. 

Rin always made sure to run the drills with Haru, matching his speed to Haru’s perfectly, keeping up with Haru even if Haru purposely sped up. 

=

Nagisa and Rei were brought over to their table by Makoto.

Rei was from Wall Sina, part of a noble family with distant blood ties to the King. 

"Why are you here?" Haru asked bluntly, after Rei had introduced himself. "You came from a noble family. You would’ve been safe inside Wall Sina. You could’ve just lived your life, free from worries and hardship."

Rei had shifted, pushed his glasses up onto his nose uncomfortably. 

"I wanted to learn to think for myself." He finally said, "I wanted to live a life that wasn’t perfectly designed by my elders. A life where I wasn’t told what to think and what to do."

Rin and scoffed slightly at that, but he had warmed up to Rei well enough. Rin and Rei became kind of comrades, eventually, constantly bickering at each other but still friends all the same.

Nagisa was sunshine incarnated, bright and cheerful but with a hardness to his eyes that suggested that he wasn’t always bright and cheerful, that he wasn’t always bubbly and happy. He was from one of the mountain towns, pretty much separated from any of the major cities. 

"I joined the military because I wanted something new. I also…I also want to save people. I don’t want people to die because of the titans. I want to make a difference." 

They had talked while eating dinner, about where they were from and why each of them had joined the military. 

Makoto had smiled softly when Nagisa had asked him why  _he_ had joined the military. He had bit into a piece of bread, looking thoughtful. “I guess…I joined because I don’t want my siblings to feel obligated to join. I also want to save people. I want to help people.”

"What about you, Haruka-san?" Rei had asked Haru, after Makoto’s answer.

Haru looked up from his soup. “I was bored,” he replied, without hesitation.

Rei looked taken aback for a moment, as Haru went back to his soup.

"Don’t worry. Haru’s a good person, once he warms up to you," Makoto had reassured Rei with a slightly sheepish grin.

"What about you, Rin-chan?" Nagisa turned to Rin, a bright smile on his face.

Rin looked up from his food, his eyes changing slightly, hardening. 

His voice was serious when he spoke, unwavering.

"I want to kill all of the titans. I want to kill them all." 

=

Rin’s first nightmare was a week after the first day of training. 

He woke up gasping and drenched in sweat, a soft scream tearing itself out of his throat, so soft that Haru was the only one who could hear it. 

The scream woke Haru up, because he had almost always been a light sleeper. Haru blinked up at the ceiling in the dark, listening to Rin shuffle around in the bunk underneath.

Rin climbed up to Haru’s bunk a couple minutes later, holding his pillow, and Haru pretended to be asleep. 

When Rin shook Haru, Haru opened his eyes and glanced at Rin. 

He had changed into a new shirt, so it wasn’t as sweaty. His classic bright smile was on his face, but it looked slightly pained, and he was shaking. His breathing was quick and uneven, though he was trying to conceal it. 

"Hey, Nanase. I…can I sleep up here, tonight?"

Haru blinked up at Rin and for once didn’t try to kick him off the top bunk. Instead, he shuffled over, made space between the wall and himself.

Rin breathed out a sigh of what seemed almost like relief, setting his pillow down and climbing in next to Haru. 

He fell asleep a couple of minutes later, but Haru stayed awake, listening as Rin started shifting and whimpering around in his sleep again.

"It’s okay. You’re okay." Haru whispered quietly, turning over to look at Rin.

Rin curled up to Haru a couple of minutes later, stopped crying out in his sleep. 

Rin started climbing up into Haru’s bunk every time he had a nightmare, or felt unsettled. Eventually, he stopped waking Haru up and just climbed into the covers, snuggled up between Haru and the wall. 

Haru started leaving space for Rin at night, subconsciously switching from sleeping in the middle of the bunk to sleeping on the side. 

Waking up with Rin’s limbs tangled with his started to feel more normal that it probably should have. 

=

Rin started calling Haru  _Haru_ instead of  _Nanase_ at some point after his first nightmare. It had first slipped out of his lips one morning, and as he rushed to apologize, Haru had just stared at him with a blank expression.

"It doesn’t matter," Haru had said, "You can just call me that."

They called each other by their first names after that.

=

Somewhere around the three month mark after they had started training, Haru suddenly realized how incredibly  _used_ to Rin he was now. 

He was used to Rin constantly hanging off his shoulder, chattering away beside him at mealtimes, climbing up into his bunk to sleep at night -  _Rin._  

He started to feel slightly  _off_ whenever Rin wasn’t around, like something was missing; started to feel uneasy if he didn’t hear Rin’s voice every five minutes or so.

Haru ignored it, told himself that he was  _completely_ not used to Rin and Rin was  _absolutely_ not his  _friend._

Absolutely not. 

=

"Have you warmed up to Rin yet?" Makoto asked Haru one night, after dinner. They’re sitting outside of the dining hall and watching Rin, Nagisa, and Rei racing each other, as the the sun faded from the sky.

Haru scowled slightly, before turning away. 

He didn’t say anything.

Makoto laughed. 

=

They started basic 3DMG training soon after. 

Makoto picked it up fast enough, as did Nagisa. Rei was terrible at it at first, but Nagisa spent hours teaching him until he became decent at it.

Haru was an instant prodigy - he picked it up within an hour. The instructors handed him 3DMG gear soon after. After the day was over, he was spinning in the air with movements so fluid they seemed almost ethereal, moving faster than some of the instructors, even. 

Rin, however - Rin was absolutely terrible at it. 

It took him three weeks to be able to balance, and even then, just barely. The instructors  _tsk_ -ed at him, people laughed at him and whispered behind his back. 

Rin just gritted his teeth and kept on trying.

=

Rin had started getting into fights, with the people who laughed at him and teased him for his lack of skill. He came back to the bunks late at night, more often than not covered in bruises and bleeding. 

He also got into trouble with the instructors, who punished him with  _no dinner,_ _run until you drop, a thousand push ups._ He started coming back to the bunks later and later, almost always missing dinner. 

Haru always waited for him, though. At dinner, if Rin wasn’t there, Haru would wrap up pieces of bread in a cloth, grabbed an extra water bottle for Rin. Haru had asked the instructors for a first aid kit, too, a first aid kit that he kept underneath his mattress. 

Rin always came back late, and Haru always waited for him, no matter how late it got. Rin would always come back to the bunks, dirty; sometimes bloody and beaten. 

Haru would always be waiting for him on the top bunk, with a dimly lit candle, food wrapped in a cloth, water, and a first aid kit.

Haru always handed Rin food and water at the end of the day, cleaned and bandaged Rin’s wounds without a word. 

=

At the four month mark, everyone got their own 3DMG gear, and everyone started to learn how to move in the air. 

Haru was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else, and Rin was at the very back. He struggled painfully with the gear, moved with stiff, slow movements. He never could get the blades out in time, and was wrecked with motion sickness at the end.

Rin threw up a lot, and Makoto was the one who nursed him after training, (when the instructors were pulling Haru out of the group and gushing over Haru). Makoto would hold Rin’s hair back for him, handed Rin cloths soaked in warm water, replenished Rin with food. 

Haru and Rin were almost always constantly together, though, despite their differences in skill.

People whispered about them, and it didn’t really affect Haru. It hurt Rin, most of the time, but he concealed it, gritting his teeth and moving on.

_"Ha, look at that!"_

_"Oh, it’s them."_

_"Rin and Haru, right?"_

_"Hey, don’t you think that it’s kind of funny? The prodigy with the worst trainee of all time."_

_"They always hang out. It’s hilarious. Why would Haru even hang out with someone like Rin? Isn’t it embarrassing?_ _”  
_

=

At the end of the first year, Rin hadn’t gotten any better with the 3DMG. 

The instructors pulled him aside one night, talked to him about his future.

_"Rin, I think you should seriously consider doing something other than joining the military."_

_"If you haven’t gotten the hang of it after almost a year, it’s doubtful that you ever will."_

_"If you drop out of the military, there are still many of options available."_

_"You’re very enthusiastic and bright, Rin. You could get a job in Wall Sina. We would even vouch for you."_

_"We all think you would benefit from not joining the_   _military.”_

Rin came back from his talk with the instructors, not discouraged in the least. His eyes were gleaming with a wildness Haru had never seen before, new determination shining in them. 

"Haru," Rin had said, grabbing Haru by the shoulders and staring into Haru’s eyes very, very, seriously. "Teach me. Teach me how to use the 3DMG."

Haru had brushed him off, turned away. “I don’t know how to teach someone,” he had replied gruffly. “You should go find someone else.”

He eventually ended up giving in to Rin.

=

The two of them ended up sneaking out of the bunks and out into the woods with their 3DMG, to practice.

Haru didn’t really teach Rin or anything, they just geared up and then started to make their way through the trees. 

Rin was slow, his movements awkward and bulky, but Haru didn’t complain once. Haru just adjusted his speed to fit with Rin’s, and they slowly made their way through the forest together.

At the end of the forest was a small cliff area that overlooked the entire training camp, and the two of them rested there, sitting and watching the sky in silence. 

It became kind of a regular thing.

=

They eventually started pouring their hearts out to each other when resting at the little cliff area, the two of them staring up at the stars.

=

"The Colossal and Armoured Titan broke into Shiganshina. They killed my entire family and I watched them die before my eyes. My family was crushed in the rubble of the falling house. I managed to drag my sister out of there and was running for my life in the streets before a titan yanked her out of my arms and ate her. I watched them all die. I…I’m only alive because a Garrison soldier came and saved me, dumped me on a boat going out of Shiganshina. I lived but my entire family died."

Haru wiped the tears that were streaming soundlessly down Rin’s face away with his hands, not saying a word.

=

"I was raised by my Grandma. My Dad’s a doctor - he travels around all the time; and my Mom follows him around. My Grandma told me stories about the world beyond the walls. She died two years ago."

A pause.

"I’ve always dreamed…I’ve always dreamed of seeing the world beyond the walls. I want to see mountains rising up in endless formations, valleys, plains, trees taller than the tallest titan. Most of all, I want to see the ocean. An endless body of salty water reaching out farther than the eye can see. I want to see the ocean, someday. I hate living in this cage."

A shooting star shot across the sky above them and they both bolted upright.

Rin turned to smile softly at Haru. “I’ve heard legends that if you make a wish on a shooting star, it’ll come true.”

Haru glanced at Rin for a long moment before speaking again. “Let’s see the ocean together.”

"Okay," Rin replied, a smile touching his face.

"Promise?"

"Promise, forever and always."

=

Rin spent a year training in the woods with Haru, and at some point he had become  _good_ at the 3DMG. Extremely good.

He had developed ways to keep up with Haru in the woods, created his own unique style. 

Haru moved with fluid grace, spinning and almost dancing in the air, with movements so quick that the eye couldn’t follow them.

Rin had developed his own style - aggressive and sharp, bold and a tiny bit reckless; not as graceful as Haru’s but just as fast, just as lethal.

=

During normal training times, it was Rin and Haru at the front of the pack, weaving through the woods miles faster than everyone else.

=

They continued with going in the forest at night during their third year of training. It had become a kind of tradition, a thing for only the two of them.

=

The third year of training was 3DMG in the woods with titan models to kill. Rin and Haru weaved through the woods together, killed almost half of the fake titans just by themselves.

At night, they had dinner with Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei. After dinner, Rin went off to go do physical training by himself, while Nagisa and Rei talked with each other.

Makoto still talked to Haru after dinner. One day, he brought up something that he hadn’t said in a year.

"Have you warmed up to Rin yet?"

Haru blinked up at the sky, and then turned to Makoto.

"Yeah," he finally replied, a barely there smile touching his lips.

=

When they graduated, Rei was ranked 10th. Nagisa 8th, Makoto 5th.

Haru, naturally, was ranked first.

Rin, to everyone’s surprise, was ranked second, just behind Haru.

=

The Attack on Trost was completely unprecedented and shocked everyone. 

It occurred the day before the trainees were to choose their respective military branches. Nobody was prepared.

It was like a repeat of Shiganshina all over again, except now there were actually people prepared to fight. 

Haru and Rin were drafted to the front lines, and they fought together at first but eventually drifted apart. 

Two hours into the battle with an endless stream of titans pouring in, Rin landed on a rooftop and looked to his left, blinking in surprise.

Haru was stranded on the road, his blades broken and out of gas, two titans coming at him on either side of him. He was trapped.

Rin heard himself scream, and then his vision was blurred completely with something like white steam.

=

_"He should be killed_ _.”_

_"A titan within the walls!"_

Rin knelt in the middle of the court, his head lowered and arms chained to a pole behind him. 

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

“ _Kill him_!”

Haru stood at the side of the court, fists clenched together so tight they were white. Makoto glanced over at him, a worried expression on his face. 

"NO!" Haru heard someone scream, and only later did he realize that it was his voice. "Rin…Rin isn’t a danger! He saved lives! He saved  _hundreds_ of lives. If he hadn’t turned into a titan, I would be dead.  _Most of the trainees would be dead._ He killed most of the titans in Trost, brought countless people to safety. And now you want to  _kill_ him? He was the only reason we stood a chance against the titans. You can’t kill him. He saved  _my_ life. He saved  _so many_ lives.”

Rin was staring up at Haru, mouth agape. “Haru…don’t get yourself tangled in my mess.”

Whispers were rising up in the court now, whispers of protest and dissent, angry glares being sent towards Haru.

The judge glanced at Haru. “What you just did could have you executed as well, you know.”

"I don’t think you want to kill me," Haru replied, his eyes blazing bright and cold. "It would only be your loss."

_Humanity’s current strongest soldier, the trainee that burst all the bars, with more solo kills than the most elite of the survey corps._

The judge ended up relenting slightly, sending Haru and Rin both to the survey corps. He put Haru in charge of Rin -  _"If the titan shifter ever goes out of control, you have to kill him. Immediately."_

=

"So if I go out of control, you’ll be the one to kill me, huh, Haru?"

"…"

"Don’t worry. If I had to be killed by anybody, I would want it to be you."

=

Rei had joined the Military Police, and Nagisa had followed. Makoto had joined the Survey Corps, but he had been assigned to a different squad. 

Rin and Haru watched people fall like flies around them, during expeditions. They watched people cry, watch people being ripped apart and killed.

They stayed alive, though, the two of them. 

Humanity’s Strongest and the Titan Shifter. An invincible, untouchable duo.

=

"I can’t wait until we escape this cage."

"I thought that was my dream."

"Haru," Rin grinned brightly, propping himself up on his elbows. He turned to look at Haru. "You know that your dreams are mine, right? I want to kill all the titans, so you can see the outside world. I want you to be happy."

=

The first time they kissed was the first time after Rin had gone berserk.

Haru had dropped everything and begged for Rin to come back to himself again.

"Rin,  _Rin. I know who I’m fighting for now. I’m fighting for you. For our dreams. So please, please. Come back. Come back!_ ”

Rin had glanced over at Haru in his titan form before his titan collapsed to the ground. Rin rose from the remains of the titan, smoke lifting itself from his body.

Haru had practically flew over to Rin, grabbing Rin and holding onto him in a desperate hug. 

Rin had laughed weakly, before leaning backwards, kissing Haru once, and then promptly passing out.

=

They had never started an actual relationship. They were in the military. They were fighting titans. People were dying all around them, and it was simply  _not the time._

They kissed deep in the night, though, when there was nobody else there.

They looked for each other after each expedition, fell into each other in relief after it had been established the other was okay. 

They fell asleep on rooftops, looking up at the stars, curled up against each other and dreaming of a better world.

=

"Your eyes are beautiful, Rin. They’re like a fire. They burn." 

Rin reached out to tuck a strand of Haru’s hair behind his ear.

"Your eyes are beautiful, too. Haven’t they ever taught you that it’s the blue part of the fire that burns the hottest?"

=

Years passed. They went on short expeditions within Wall Sina, met up with Makoto and Nagisa and Rei during their spare time. New trainees joined the military. The titans were steadily killed, with new technology and new techniques.

=

When all the titans had been killed and executed, (or at least enough so that the outside world had been deemed relatively safe), Haru was awarded a medal. So was Makoto. 

Rin wasn’t. People still felt resentment towards him.

He was a titan shifter, after all.

=

"I wanted to kill all the titans, Haru."

"Rin…Rin…what are you doing?"

Haru was frozen, shaking in place.

Rin smiled, softly and gently, holding a dagger up to his own throat.

"I said I would kill all the titans from the very beginning."

“ _Rin._ ”

"You can see the outside world, now, right? Could you do me a favour? Could you throw my ashes into the ocean?"

"Rin! What are you - are you serious?"

"I…I just want you to be happy." Rin’s eyes were slightly dulled now, but they still gleamed with the same wild recklessness they had the first day Haru had met him. "I…I said I would kill all of them."

"Rin. No. Stop."

"We’ll meet in another world, you know? I’m sure of it. We’ll be…we’ll be happier there."

Haru lunged forwards, but Rin was already moving the dagger.

"Hey, Haru," Rin shot him an almost carefree smile, his red eyes lit up bright. Beautiful. "I love you."

It was the first time he had said it, the first time that any of them had said the word  _love_ to each other.

Seconds later, the dagger was plunged into the soft flesh of Rin’s throat.

Blood burst everywhere, flying onto Haru’s clothes, and Haru heard himself scream, felt a torrent of tears pouring down his face. 

=

_"Let’s see the ocean together."_

_"Okay."_

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise, forever and always."_

=

Rei was teaching Nagisa how to waltz.

Makoto was sitting on a log, surrounded by a bunch of people.

The air was fresh. Crisp.

The world was unlimited, spread out before him. The walls were gone.

He was sitting on a cliff overlooking the crashing ocean, which was every bit as beautiful and magnificent as he had imagined it, maybe even more. The waves beat against the shore, making a rhythm like a heartbeat.

Haru glanced down at the waves, soundless tears dripping down his face.

"You promised we’d see the ocean together. You promised." His voice was raspy, almost broken. "Where are you?"

=

_"We’ll meet in another world, you know? I’m sure of it. We’ll be…we’ll be happier there."_

=

Joint practice at Iwatobi had long been finished. They had spent hours chasing each other around the beach, until the sun had set from the sky and all the stars had come out.

Now they were sitting on the shore, feet placed so that the tide would wash over it. Their hands were loosely entwined, and they were both staring up at the stars in silence. 

"Sometimes…I feel like I’ve known you for a very, very, long time." Rin said, closing his eyes.

"Yeah," Haru sighed, tightening his grip on Rin’s hand for a short moment. 

Rin opened his eyes just as a shooting star was dashing across the sky. 

They stared up at the shooting star together, and then words were tumbling out of Haru’s mouth of their own accord.

"Let’s see the ocean together."

Rin glanced over at him, eyes widening in slight surprise as his mouth moved to reply. “Okay.”

"Promise?"

A pause. A wave crashed across the shore, cold water washing over their feet.

"Promise, forever and always."

**Author's Note:**

> Again, sorry for any mistakes.
> 
> (This is actually quite short but it took me forever wow).
> 
> Thank you for reading until now, if you did. Much appreciated. 
> 
> I hope you liked it and I'm sorry if you didn't. 
> 
> (Also the title is ridiculous because, well, I don't know how to do titles).


End file.
